FedEx unveils the industry’s first onboard automatic fire suppression system
Written By Michael Rossi
FedEx unveils the industry’s first onboard automatic fire suppression system for extended over water (EOW) flights. The system was released after close to seven years of research from the FedEx team after losing N68055 at SWF in 1996.
The system is a network of infrared thermal sensors, foaming agents and an overhead cargo container snozzle.
If heat is detected by the sensors the fire suppression technology located above each cargo container will activate and simultaneously advise the crew that something is wrong. The snozzle, like those used on the ARFF trucks will penetrate the container and spread a non-corrosive biodegradable foam that will work on on class A, B and D fires. Materials subjected to Class C fires, will continue to be carried in the plane’s belly.
This System Vs. Other Systems
A majority of safety systems in today’s cargo aircraft are manually activated and control fires that are in containers that the goods must be declared and labeled by the shipper as hazardous. This new system will uniformly spread through the cabin are and will automatically warn the crew which will save crucial seconds. The crew can then determine what to do next based on FAA Regulations.
Currently, regulations require that the airplane must depressurize and divert after any inflight emergency. After a depressurization, the crew has approximately 30 minutes to land the aircraft. With the new system, the lengthy trans pacific flights can continue to fly and land at the nearest landing site. This is crucial because some of those fields may be up to three hours away.
Personally I give FedEx two thumbs up because not only are they installing these new system, they installed heads up displays on all MD-10s and MD-11s, advanced GPWS systems and runway awareness systems to all of their airplanes. FedEx seems to really care about the safety of their company, employees and the industry as a whole to try by trying to reduce the amounts of accidents and truly deliver “The World Ontime” More importantly, safely!